1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device for creating, storing, and retrieving, displaying and/or printing grocery lists.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention is an electronic grocery sister, with three preferred embodiments. The first embodiment is portable, the second embodiment is designed for use only at home, and the third embodiment includes a modem for shopping at home. It will be seen that none of the prior inventions for mechanical grocery listers or electronic devices are equivalent to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,050, issued on May 31, 1977, to Bruce Aaron Boles, discloses a device for creating a grocery shopping list, with members having the names of grocery items written on them, that are turned to indicate what items are needed. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it uses electronic rather than mechanical means to create a grocery list.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,911, issued on May 10, 1988, to Roosevelt R. Manuel, discloses a grocery list device, being a box with index strips having the names of different items, and indicators clipped onto the index strips to indicate items to be purchased. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it uses electronic rather than mechanical means to create a grocery list.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,169, issued on Feb. 21, 1989, to Felix J. Overbeck, discloses an electronic information device to aid food preparation, by storing, retrieving and combining menus and recipes, including instructions for food preparation. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it prepares grocery lists of both food and nonfood items, and does not relate to instructions for food preparation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,632, issued on May 23, 1989, to Toshio Nishimura and Megumi Fukusaki, discloses an electronic record keeping device, for recording numerical data in different areas of memory, where it can be accessed by item keys. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it has a capability of selecting from a pre-existing list of groceries items a shorter list of those items needed in the immediate future, and processing data about those items.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,651, issued on Aug. 17, 1993, to Stephen Randall, discloses an electronic personal organizer, that displays graphics that look like pages of a looseleaf notebook. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it is specifically designed to create and process lists of grocery items.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,789, issued on Oct. 5, 1993, to Edward L. Johnsen, discloses an in-store electronic shopping display system, that is preferably attached to a shopping cart. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it allows the user to create a shopping list at home, free from control by the store's management.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,441, issued on Oct. 19, 1993, to Fred Rachiele and Ray Anderson, discloses a device for listing and marking items and errands, with a plurality of marked tabs inserted into a planar support sheet, having no electronic components, as does the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,071, issued on Sep. 6, 1994, to Charles Dumont, discloses a shopper's purchase monitoring device, which reads bar codes on items in a store, and computes their total cost. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it allows the user to create a shopping list at home.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,524, issued on Jun. 13, 1995, to Jonathan P. Ruppert and Ronald C. Fish, discloses a personal scanner/computer for displaying shopping lists and scanning bar codes to aid shoppers. The instant invention is distinguishable, in that it is a device that allows users to create their own shopping lists electronically, that does not require the use of a scanner.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 309,293, issued on Jul. 17, 1990, to Arthur L. Helbig, Jr., discloses a design for a pocket data input/output terminal. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 313,401, issued on Jan. 1, 1991, to Zenya Tanabe, discloses a design for a data entry terminal. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 315,895, issued on Apr. 2, 1991, to Stephen H. Paine and Carl Schofield, discloses a design for a console for a data input/output tablet. None of these design patents disclose a capability of creating and processing grocery lists.
West German Patent No. 2,748,951, published on May 3, 1979, inventor Irma Just, discloses an electronic calculator designed for doing chemical equations. West German Patent No. 2,754,919, published on Jun. 13, 1979, inventor Knut Lanzke, discloses an electronic calculator designed for counting dietary calories. Neither of these calculators are designed to produce grocery shopping lists.
Japanese Patent No. 56-137,460, published on Oct. 27, 1981, inventor Mashahiro Yoshiji, discloses an electronic device, that can calculate the total costs of goods to be purchased, but does not display a list of items on a screen, as does the instant invention.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.